Brussels, 19/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 19 September, the European Commission cleared the proposed acquisition of certain assets of the Dutch banking group ABN AMRO by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) of the UK and Santander of Spain. “The Commission concluded that both operations would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it,” says a press release. At the end of May, a consortium formed by RBS, Fortis and Santander announced the bid for ABN AMRO's entire share capital. This ambitious bid, which, if successful, will lead to the break-up of ABN AMRO assets among the three banks, is considered by the Commission as three separate concentrations. The green light it has just given only refers to the mergers that would result from the acquisitions by RBS and Santander of certain ABN AMRO assets. The proposed acquisition by Fortis of the remaining ABN assets is currently being reviewed by the Commission and a decision will be taken by 3 October 2007.
Under the terms of the proposed bid, RBS will acquire inter alia ABN AMRO's Business Unit North America; Business Unit Global Clients and wholesale clients in the Netherlands (including former Dutch wholesale clients) and in Latin America (excluding Brazil); Business Unit Asia; Business Unit Europe (excluding Antonveneta). The Commission's examination of the merger showed that there were only limited horizontal overlaps between RBS and ABN AMRO in the EEA and that, for all the financial services concerned, the combined entity would still face sufficient competition from a number of operators. Santander will acquire inter alia ABN AMRO's Business Unit Latin America (excluding wholesale banking outside Brazil and asset management) and the Italian bank Antonveneta. Santander's acquisition of ABN AMRO's assets has been treated under the simplified procedure since the merger did not give rise to any affected markets within the EEA. (ab)